DE 43 38 350 A1 describes a tapered roller bearing of this kind with a cage, wherein, in the pockets, the cage is provided at the small diameter with axial elastic means, which preload the rollers against the large rim, and at the large diameter with projections, which snap into a groove arranged on the inner bearing ring or behind a projection arranged on the inner bearing ring. The inner bearing ring has a rim only at the large diameter, and the elastic means on the cage are in the form of axial corrugations or segmented lips. This tapered roller bearing with a cage is supposed to be simple to install while being economical to manufacture without tolerance, friction and space problems and to allow reliable setting of the tapered rollers, ensuring that the tapered rollers are located immediately in the correct position as soon as the overall bearing has been assembled and installed in a machine.
This tapered roller bearing with a cage has proven its worth, but it has been found that it is desirable to reduce the preloading by the projections on the side ring of the cage on the side of the tapered rollers with the larger diameter in order to compensate for the effects of tolerances, e.g. the length tolerance of the rolling elements, the width tolerance of the cage pockets, the tolerance of the overall height of the bearing and the width tolerance of a twist-free movement for snapping in the radial cage projections.